Nowhere near the end

It has been barely twenty-four hours since Barack Obama secured the Democratic Party nomination for president. There has been no shortage of people declaring this a historic moment in the course of our nation. You will get no argument from me on that notion. Only a handful of events in the social development on this young country are even comparable. That’s the glass-half-full way I see things. The more pessimistic parts of me feel the need to point out two things.

One, Barack ain’t won nothing yet! The party nomination is critical and it has been the focus for the past year and more, but it was never the end goal. As contentious as the primary race was, it is guaranteed to seem tame compared to the upcoming five months. Much like a sports team that makes the playoffs, acknowledgment is appropriate and celebration is deserved, but proper perspective is paramount. The Democratic Party, by virtue of its nominating process, has probably squandered most of whatever advantage it may held over the GOP at the start of the campaign and now must engage in a close race with Senator John McCain and the GOP political machinery. Still, it seems too many people are already looking past the general election and all the way to inauguration night. For Obama supporters, now is not the pat ourselves on the back, but rather it is the time to redouble and refocus our efforts.

Two, an Obama win does not signify the end of racism! Oh, I wish it did, but it doesn’t. Since the day Senator Obama entered the race, plenty of people have waxed poetic about dreams of a post-racial America. To be sure, the Obama nomination and possible election are reflective of tremendous racial progress in our country, and could possibly spur unprecedented racial progress in their wake. The problem is that even though we have come a long way, we still have a long way to go. The social, educational, political, and economic discrepancies that both preserve and expand the racial divide are so deeply-rooted in all aspects American life, that it would nothing short of naive to expect that any single event could provide immediate remedy for all these ails. In the same way that Obama is not president yet, racism is not gone yet: two points that might be had to perceive in the current media climate.

All that said, the most important thing to keep in mind is that eight years of George W. Bush were eight years too many, so the four more years that John McCain wants to instill are unacceptable. People, let’s get Barack Obama into the White House.